


Behind closed doors

by salytierra (octavaluna)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 1522, Flirting, Habsburg pair, Historical Accuracy, Historical Hetalia, Human & Country Names Used, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, notes at the beginning, young personifications of nations slowly falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 16:12:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7514744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octavaluna/pseuds/salytierra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kings are kings. They are arrogant, prideful and sometimes too young to understand that they may rule over their lands, but it's those lands that they sold their lives to in exchange for a crown. </p><p>When Charles refuses to Marry Isabella of Portugal for the umpteenth time, Antonio isn't afraid to confront him. However it's later, behind the closed doors of their chamber, that he bares his soul and his body to his own spouse, in a moment of intimacy that neither of them is completely used to yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind closed doors

**Author's Note:**

> People that are mentioned in this story: (bolded)  
> The Catholic Monarchs, **Isabella of Castile** (the Great Queen, house of Trastamara) and **Ferdinand II of Aragon**  
>  They had several children that they married off around Europe. Among them:  
> -Maria: Married king **Emmanuel I of Portugal** and became the mother of **ISABELLA OF PORTUGAL,** future Empiress.  
>  - **Joanna** lately known as The Mad, married Phillip the Handsome of the house of Habsburg, known as "The Austrias" and had six children. Here mentioned are:
> 
>   * **CHARLES I OF SPAIN/Charles V: Holy Roman Emperor.** Raised in Flanders and very disliked in Spain in his first decades of rule. The only reason he had been accepted as king is because of his grandparent's will. He took his young step-grandmother (Germana of France) as a lover for a while. Was promised to Isabella of Portugal (a union that literally everybody else in Spain wanted) but refused to marry her for many years.
>   * **Eleanor:** Charles married her to her widower uncle Emmanuel of Portugal, but he died and Charles called her back. 
>   * **Ferdinand:** Was born and raised in Spain. Unconditionally beloved there. Charles had to exile him because his advisors perceived Ferdinand as a threat, but later entrusted him with the government of the Austrian hereditary lands. 
> 

> 
>   
>  Story faintly inspired by [this scene](http://salytierra.tumblr.com/post/146841612163/today-in-is-this-a-real-line-or-is-it-drama) in Carlos: Rey Emperador  
> There are many more things I would have loved to mention, but I'll probably leave them for another story.

 

 

_**Valladolid (Castile), 1522** _

 

“Marry Princess Isabella.”

“No”

Antonio balled up his fists and inspired deeply before addressing his king again.

“Your Majesty, this marriage would assure the peace on the peninsula and secure for us the alliance of another catholic kingdom. Besides, the downy alone…”

“I already gave my own sister to the king of Portugal.”

“A king that’s now dead!”

“And yet his son is yet to make good of his promise to send her back!”

“Exactly! What will happen once this tie is severed? Carlos, please…”

“I will not marry Isabella. And I don’t want to hear you again nagging me about this.”

“You…” Antonio’s hands were beginning to shake, even in front of his king he couldn’t control the rage boiling up in his veins, the putrid seed of the rebellion, long silenced but not completely eradicated, still making his insides turn. “You married Leonor to an old man, you married me to another of my kind I barely know, and yet you are not ready to be a man and do the same? And for whom? For a _French whore_ you’re still hung on?”

The slap on his cheek was louder than it actually hurt. Actually, it took Antonio a couple of seconds to realize that his king, that the emperor had actually just hit him. But now Carlos himself has shaking his hand with a pained expression on his face and Antonio raised his fingers to touch the side of his cheek, barely warmer than the other one. It was not easy to hurt him these days.

“I will not allow you to talk like that about Lady Germana. Not about her.”

“You don’t want to hear the truth.” Antonio spat out. “Do you know why I let you become my king? Why do you have any right over this crown? It’s because your grandmother, may God guard her soul, wanted so. She expected you to be a good, a rightful king worthy of her legacy. She expected you to do the right thing and put your duties before your own interests. A united Iberia was her dream, it is still mine. The only thing you have to do to honour her memory is to take this bow, and yet…”

Carlos turned around, breathing heavily. Leaning his elbows on the table he chuckled darkly. “Everyone’s always comparing me to the memory of the late king Ferdinand because nobody even believes I will ever be worthy of the soles of the Great Queen’s dress. Everybody in this land is waiting for me to drop dead so my brother can come back and rule in my stead. Your best friend, isn’t he? I will forever be the foreigner to you! Nothing I do for you will ever be enough.”

Antonio snorted, crossing his arms. “Pray tell me. What exactly did you ever do for me? Everything you are you are _because_ of me. It it wasn’t for my money and power you wouldn’t be the Holy Roman Emperor. I sacrificed the uncountable for your glory, I bow my head, I fight and fuck under your command! You sent me away while you massacred my people so I would kill for you and bring you back the gold that you are blowing God knows on what while my people pay for the wars you started and I never wanted. _I_ made you king! Because all I had to ever do is go to your mother and convince you to change her will. She would have listened to me. And yet here you are, and the only thing I’m asking of you, the only thing I ever asked of you, the one thing I want the most… and you aren’t willing to give it to me?”

“I am your king!” Carlos grunted, but it sounded insecure, subdued.

Antonio took a step forward.”

“And I am your kingdom. For my disgrace!” They were standing face to face now “You complain about being seen as a foreigner in these lands you barely set a foot in. Marry Isabella. She has more Castilian and Aragonese blood in her than you do. You will become the father of the Crown Prince of the Hispanic Kingdoms, and that will make you one of us. Nobody will be able to deny it.”

He made a face when Carlos turned around, walking to his throne and sitting on it. Sighing. Antonio kept his mouth shut. He’d already said his piece and now it was turn for the king to meditate. Finally Carlos looked up again and pursed his lips.

“I will consider it, maybe. Now take your husband away, I don’t want to see him again until I call for his presence.”

Antonio was confused for half a second until somebody touched his shoulder, making him jump out of surprise. Was he really so absorbed in the situation that he didn’t hear the heavy oak door opening?

Austria looked pleadingly at him, shaking his head slightly. He seemed worried, so Antonio caved, signing and raising his hand to squeeze the one on his shoulder. He followed Roderich out not even looking back, discovering a good dozen of people suspiciously huddled behind the door, all looking slightly uncomfortable.

 

“We could hear you two yelling through the whole castle.” Austria said once they were finally behind the doors of their chamber. There was no reproach behind his voice, just a slight concern. Then again, Antonio didn’t know him good enough yet to decipher the hues in his tone.

“You heard everything?” He winced, feeling slightly guilty. “I didn’t even know you were here.” Which was of course a shitty excuse, but Austria just hummed nonchalantly, hands raising up to start working on the clasps of Antonio’s cloak.

“I just got here, actually. Ferdinand sent me. He has no use for me right now and thinks we should spend more time together. And that I should also see the place where he grew up and that he misses so much.”

“So he’s living vicariously through you?”

“More like he hopes that this way I’ll somehow come to love you as much as he loves you.” He said, walking around to help Antonio shake off his gown and doublet at the same time, dropping them to the floor and wowing his arms around his waist, hugging him from behind.

Antonio allowed himself a private smile, leaning back a bit and resting his head on Roderich’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, for what I said before.” He murmured.

“You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Besides, you were trying to provoke him, not me.”

“Still, you weren’t supposed to hear that. Nor anyone else. I’m surprised nobody came rushing in.”

“The local guards held Carlos’ personal ones back. Tensions are a little high right now.”

Antonio hummed in agreement, he could feel it, yet there was no will in his heart to leave the comfortable warmth of his alcobe and his spouse’s arms to go play mediator.

 

“You really love him, do you?” Austria spoke after a while.

“Whom?” Antonio asked, tensing up a bit, trying to retrace their conversation.

“Your brother. You want an assured peace with him more than anything else in the world. That’s what all of this is really about.”

Antonio chuckled and, squeezing his hand, stepped out of Austria’s arms, settling down on his bed. Making a beckoning gesture with his fingers he drew Roderich in to sit on his thigh, starting to unbutton his husband’s, way more complicated, travel gown.

“I’m tired of fighting him, or worrying about having to fight him the second the wind blows from a different direction. And I want a monarch I can trust to see for my sake before their own ambitions.”

“And you think Isabella might be that Empress you long for.”

“She is a Trastamara in blood, resolve and heart. Whereas Carlos is…” He made a waving gesture with his hand, not really sure of how to finish the sentence. “He’s just not.”  

“But the main reason is still your brother, right?” Roderich stood up to shed his clothes and stepped out of his boots, not really caring for the other’s gaze following his every movement.

“Well yes. Why? Jealous?”

“Not at all.” Austria arched one eyebrow, walking back to Antonio and pushing him down on the bed covers. “I just want to understand you.” he said, climbing up and sitting comfortably on his thighs. Spain’s hands came up to rest on his waist but Roderich shoved them away starting to unbutton Antonio’s shirt.

“I fear then, that you are going to have to content yourself with just a tour around my place. Because not even I understand myself most of the time.”

“I’ll take that too” He assured, grazing his nails lightly over the naked skin of Spain’s chest, playing with the fine hairs there “as long as you are my guide.”

Antonio chuckled, sliding his palms up Roderich’s legs and around, cupping his behind to yank him a couple of centimetres closer, where he would be able to feel the growing hardness underneath the thick wool pants.

“I’m not sure there will be anything to really capture your interest. It’s just plain fields and hills as far as eye can see.”

“I assure you right now I’m very interested in all kind of hills.” Austria said, punctuating his words with a roll of his hips and a hand caressing his spouse's abdomen, biting his lower lip when the answering laughter made those muscles shift deliciously.

“Come here, you danger.” Antonio chuckled, voice full of affection that Austria had never heard there before. However, he didn’t have time to dwell on it before being pulled into a demanding kiss. Hungry and wet, and he abandoned any sliver of reason left on his mind, surrendering to it and giving back as good as he got as their bodies found the perfect fit to move in an intimate tandem. Rolling around until Austria’s back hit the bed and he melted under the heavy press of the other’s body over him.

“Just for tonight” he breathed out as the kiss broke, tilting his head and arching his back with a moan when Spain bit into the sensitive skin there “Just for tonight you can use me to forget all that’s bothering you.”

Another soft sigh and he managed to get his thumbs under Antonio’s pants, pulling them down. “Tomorrow… tomorrow we’ll deal with it. Together. But for now, I want to be the only one on your mind.”

“As you wish, my Lord.” Spain answered, grinning against his lips before luring him into another passionate kiss.

At the end, the memory of that night would be one of the many to keep them up ‘till sunrise, centuries later and half a world apart.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this story. I love those two, even though they break my heart!
> 
> Please consider commenting and/or leaving kudos. They are wonderful ao3 features that feed the writer's starving soul  
> [You can also find me on tumblr](http://salytierra.tumblr.com) ♥


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